He envisions 15,000 spring breakers gyrating on the beach to tunes spun by top-notch DJs flown in from New York, L.A. and Miami. He would supply those sophisticated partiers with booze served by “beautiful people” as they danced deep into the night or chatted on “sexy lounge chairs.”

But this is Sarasota. And Miami’s party scene is not likely to appeal to the general population here.

Sarasota County officials were torn by Rush’s proposal. Events like Rush’s “Siesta Sessions” are exactly what many say the county needs to attract a younger population and diversify the all-important tourist business. But this week they decided a massive spring break party going for several days might not be the best idea during Sarasota’s peak snowbird season, and put a required permit on hold.

“I believe Sarasota is ready for these kind of events,” Rush said.

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The Birmingham News Follow Auto supplier North American Lighting Inc. will invest about $35 million and create 250 jobs over the next three years with the expansion of its manufacturing facility in Muscle Shoals. The expansion will begin operations in January, and the company will produce 1.2 million head lamps per year by 2014, according to Governor Robert Bentley, who was in Muscle Shoals today for the announcement. “Our automotive supplier base continues to grow as companies find that Alabama is the best place to locate operations, to expand and to live,” the governor said in a prepared statement. North American Lighting’s U.S. headquarters are in Paris, Ill. The company has three manufacturing plants in southern Illinois and a technical center in Farmington Hills, Mich. The company, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Koito Manufacturing Co. Full story…

Repeated postponements, a shortage of equipment and a lack of information from the group responsible for doling out the money have undermined research in the crucial first year after the disaster. The lag may make it impossible to fully understand the oil spill’s impact on the Gulf ecosystem, scientists said.

“Oil is a moving target; with every day of passing time, we get further and further from the acute effects of the oil and it becomes harder and harder to trace those effects,” said Ian MacDonald, a biological oceanographer at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

From late last April to mid-July, the blown BP Deepwater Horizon rig spewed 186 million to 227 million gallons of crude into the Gulf, adding up to the world’s largest peacetime oil spill. BP also doused the Gulf with at least 1.8 million gallons of chemicals to disperse the crude.

Last May, in the midst of the disaster, BP promised $500 million for a decade of Gulf research — enough to give the ecosystem unprecedented scrutiny.

Almost immediately, however, Gulf-area politicians — former Gov.

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AP Photo/Richard VogelBirmingham area home sales dropped 9.6 percent in January.The Birmingham Association of Realtors said today that last month’s home sales totaled 511, compared to 565 in January 2010.The average price was $164,216, a 2 percent rise from the year-ago period, while the median price also rose 2 percent to $132,500.

Florida voters approved the tax in 1972, after then-Gov. Reubin Askew had promoted it as a way to help shift the financial burden from everyday citizens to corporations while providing more money for important state programs like schools.

Now Scott is pushing to eliminate it, saying the tax is a drag on business and job growth. He frames it as part of a relentless initiative to reduce taxes, government spending and regulations and make Florida the top economic development state.

“No company in this country is even going to consider doing business in another state,” Scott said last week as he promoted his tax-cutting plans.

Scott will reveal his tax-cutting plan details along with the rest of his 2012 spending plan today. But in general, he wants to phase out the 5.5 percent corporate income tax over the next seven years, starting with a 2.5 percent cut this year.

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